Page:Shingle-short-Baughan-1908.djvu/79



Want to hear a story? Want to come on Granny’s knee? None the better for that party and the pastry, I can see! Tired of all your dollies, and the picture-books? Well, well! I don’t think we’d have tired....Now, you listen, and I’ll tell.

....Once, there was a blue Bay—years and years ago;— Cramm’d with red and black pine, thick as they could grow; Half-a-dozen settlers, with as many children each; Not a track to anywhere, and Bush to the beach.

We’d no mail, or schoolhouse; there was neither church nor store; People lived in pine-wood wharés, with pine-sawdust on the floor. Strangers never came our way, playthings mostly grew, An’ Town might have been at Home, for all us young ones knew.